Eidos In Alledged Review Score Shenanigans

There is a small blog, it’s called The RAM Raider and it was hated by most PR folk and really fun to read. Written by an apparent industry insider, the site was basically filled with the inside scoop and many not-so-subtle digs at various industry folk. Lots of allegations and the like have been thrown around over who writes it, or if they just make up news, but that’s not really fun is it? Sadly, no sooner had I found the place, but it closed down last January.

Ha! Like that was going to last. The site has since been sporadically updated and this morning offered up a rather interesting post. Regarding Eidos’ big summer release, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mr. Raider claims print mags were offered a deal on the review embargo;

If you dedicate the cover of your mag to Arkham Asylum and guarantee a score of at least 90%, Eidos will allow you to run the review early.

As this is quite the drama, the story soon elevated upwards to the bigger sites (facts? Pff, we need to run the story first then check to see if it’s true, it’s proper exciting!) and Eido’s PR were quick to respond claiming that the whole story is fabricated. But then, they would say that if this was all a big conspiracy wouldn’t they!? Just like Stargate.

Weirdly, I have no idea who is telling the truth in all this. It’s very possible the story was fabricated based on loose facts over heard and some guy wanting to stir the pot and enjoy watching it boil over, or it could be that Eidos are doing something this industry is widely famed and shamed for.

Look up the early reviews of most big games and you’ll find them to be nearly always higher than the average score. It’s simple PR common sense, but is it at play here? Who knows. If only we had real journalists in this industry.

So, Eidos killed Michael Jackson and help Nasa keep the fact the earth is flat a secret from the population.